Pages

DIY Animal Bookends

I've been haunted - in a good way - by these golden pig bookends from CB2 for months now.

So. Fantastic.﻿﻿﻿﻿

﻿﻿﻿﻿

But ﻿the $30 price tag was more than I wanted to spend, and I knew I could bust out a DIY version anyway. (Hello, Pinterest.) But after mentioning this to my kids, they (and here's a shocker) couldn't bring themselves to sacrifice any toys in the name of house accessorization.

Fair enough.

You can imagine my tenderized heart when I came home from the grocery store a coupla days ago and found these lovelies waiting for me on the kitchen counter with a note from my 8-year-old son.

"For Mom. Carson."

(I think my heart would have been even more tender if I knew what those front two animals even are. Armadillos? Anteaters? Some prehistoric creature that doesn't even exist today?)

They're small animals, but he offered them ﻿so sweetly, I couldn't back out now. I figured I just wouldn't cut them in half but instead use two animals (rather than two halfs of an animal) as a set.

So I found some thin wooden blocks, measured, cut, and sanded them.

I glued two pieces of wood together first and used a toothpick to smooth out the excess.

Then I put small drops of glue on each paw and glued the animals down.

Here they are, awaiting the spray primer step...﻿

...which can't come soon enough, if you ask me. Those red eyes have got to go. Creepy! Who designed these kid toys, anyway?

So. Primed and painted with Krylon metallic gold spray paint. In hindsight, it would've been easier to spray paint the stand and the animals thoroughly prior to gluing them together. Not a huge deal, but consider it a little tippy-tip to you from me. You're welcome.

Oh, and I also hot-glued four little dots to the bottom of each frame so they wouldn't slide whilst trying to hold up books.

For a super-fast, super-free project, I totally love how they turned out. Even knowing those red eyes are lurking under the bear's paint doesn't deter my love.

Any repurposing project that can make two I-have-no-idea-what-kind-of-animal-it-is figurines look even remotely chic? Winner winner chicken dinner.

I was thinking the gold might end up being a little stuffy-looking, but even with paperbacks they look great. I guess it's hard to make a bear-elephant duo look too stuffy...anywhere.

K, for real now. Here they currently live, on my super simple living room mantel.

There you have it. Now off you go, to raid your child's toy animals bin.

Are they big enough that you'd saw them in half? Oh, please say yes! And then please do it. And then please post about it. And I'll come visit you in your bookend awesomeness and bring muffins that we can sit and dine and stare at the lovely largeness. Seriously. Do it, Crystal. I want to see how big ones turn out!

How very clever! My 3 year old loves animals and books, so these are perfect for her bookcase. I pinned them so I can come back to them after I find some animals that will work for this project. Thank you for sharing them at my Link Love Thursday party!

Agreed. And hopefully they'll look as cute in a non-safari-themed living room for grownups. Because that's where mine are. Because we're mature like that around here. :) Thanks so much for coming by! Your comment makes my day.

I just love being able to use stuff that normally is good for nothing other than hurting my feet when I step on them because they were left out for days on end and scattered throughout the house. :)Thanks, Carrie.

YAY!! You have been featured at The DIY Dreamer... From Dream To Reality!! Come on over and grab your featured button.. You deserve it!! :)http://thediydreamer.com/from-dream-to-reality/from-dream-to-reality-linky-party-49/

I want to share a testimony on how Le_Meridian funding service helped me with loan of 2,000,000.00 USD to finance my marijuana farm project , I'm very grateful and i promised to share this legit funding company to anyone looking for way to expand his or her business project.the company is funding company. Anyone seeking for finance support should contact them on lfdsloans@outlook.com Or lfdsloans@lemeridianfds.com Mr Benjamin is also on whatsapp 1-989-394-3740 to make things easy for any applicant.

.

Hey! I'm Brittney. I have a husband, 4 kids, an ever-evolving home decor style, and a budget. I DIY and thrift-hunt and share it all with you here. So pull up a chair, grab a cookie, and (e)stay awhile.